TALK TO YOUR HORSE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1115, 30 June 1883, Page 3

TALK TO YOUR HORSE.

Some man, unknown to the writer hereof, has given to the world a saying that sticks : ‘ Talk to your cow as you would to a lady.’ There is a word of common sense in it. There is mox’e, there is a good sound religion in it. What else is in it but the language of the Bible applied to animals. ‘ A soft answer turneth away wrath.’ A pleasant word to a horse in time of trouble has prevented many a disaster where the horse has learned that pleasant words mean a guarantee that danger from punishment is not imminent. D ne morning a big, muscular groom said to his employer a I can’t exercise that horsa any more, fle will bolt and run at anything he sees.” The owner, a small man, and ill at the time, asked that the horse be hooked up. Stepping into the skeleton, he drove a couple of miles, and then asked the groom to station along the road such objects as the horse was afraid of. This was done, and the horse was driven by them quietly, back and forth with loose lines slapping on his back, The whole secret was in a voice that inspired confidence. The man had been frightened at everything he saw that he supposed the horse would fear. The fear went to the horse like an electric message. Then came a punishing pull of the reins, with jerking and the whip. Talk to your horse as you would to your sweetheart. Do not fear but what he understands and appreciates loving tones, if not the words, while it is by no means certain that the sensitive intelligence of many a horse does not comprehend the latter.—Breeders’ Gazette.